House Divided.

[EnFuego 0]

great work men  great work Hunter....

I understand you eventually want to add some "Western" eliment to this.  It will be easy to do since Quatrill Raiders were southerners who each had some tragic event happen to them from Union soldiers during the war and formed a gang. They Killed all the women and children in one town durning one of their raids i Belive it was Elizibethtown.

There's also the "RED LEGS",, another rebellion group who fought against Quantrill Raiders.

There were some epic battles on the west side of the Mississippi but labled as masssacre's

Bloody Bill Anderson was from Quatrill Raiders and Jesse James was part of this group as a kid.

 Buffalo Bill Cody was a red leg as a kid.

John Wesley Hardin killed 3 Union Soldiers right after the war. Many "western outlaws and Lawmen" became who they are from this civil war.

Wild Bill Hickok was another

 I say add "Quantrill Raiders" for the South.

Why Western outlaws and Lawmen??  simply put,, we shoot the major motion picture in May/June,,,Same producer from the movie "Tombstone" is producing this film.

  The same man that MADE the guns for the Movie "Tombstone" is making them for our movie also.

 it is the first movie of Ten.... Big actors are already casted( (Jason Preistly),,. Locations are set to be in Kansas and California.

 How do I know all this?  I wrote the script,,, set to be released winter of 2006.

called "The gunfighters" (series)

P.s. each movie is about true stories and true events,, right down to the arrest records...

Authenticity is Key,,, keep up the good work...

[gavinthecat 0]

Hey EnFuego

Well first of all congrats on your career in film and scriptwriting, I too am a filmmaker but based in the UK! So now I'll be pestering you in future about some of the correct decisions you made in that arena! Haha

As for the mod, well your right ol' chap there is a wild west element, of course when you say that people get the wrong idea (not everyone) and think our mod is going to end up being cartoony etc.

In the first phase release, which we are including a battle campaign with, it focusses on the civil war. (but does include over 30 cowboy units with um 8 p3ds and varying object selections)

The second phase will follow the same era, but focus even more on characters of the wild west, including a lot of civilians and towns people, bandits and sheriffs and mercenaries u get the idea, and they will live on an island we're making called 'Bitter Island' which will be a wild west conspiracy story campaign, (also featuring civil war elements)

After that lads, there will be the third phase, (which by this time will include the updating of our mod for armed assault) which features a mexico/texas map, and will cover the french occupation of mexico, (of the 1860s) and the mexican revolutionary upheavels of the 1870s+ i.e. pancho villa etc.

Our mod is here to stay for the incredible long term duration, we intend to still be here for ofp 2, where i dream of customising the dynamic war engine they have too haha.

But one step at a time, as a scriptwriter tho EnFuego (and i like few who can appreciate how busy u must be) would welcome some help coming up with great campaign story ideas. Which once done will feature ingame lip sync voice acting etc.

[Connors 0]

The Alamo

[gavinthecat 0]

oops lol thats a bit too early haha thats the er 1830s or something like that (okay off the top of my head)

[JdB 151]

1836, and yes, too early.

[Connors 0]

oh well (i bet someone will try it)

[ESFD 0]

Just read a bit about infantry tactics at that time and came up with this, animation and speed wise:

Weapon on back, slow - Slow paced march, weapon on shoulder

Weapon on back, fast - Fast paced march, weapon on shoulder

Weapon in hand, slow - Marching, weapon in hand ready to aim

Weapon in hand, fast - Weapon pointed forward, charge!

Jogging for sharpshooters and cowboys and maybe skirmishers too (like original)

Prone position for sharpshooters

The default jogging is unrealistic for modern combat (AT equipement=60kg) and just out of place for civil war.

What do you think?

[gavinthecat 0]

lol ESFD i think you should make them!

haha but joking aside,

doing walking animations and such like are not easy, i mean hardly anyone has done them except WWIIEC for their mod, and er... 1 or 2 animators, it would take a long time for a skilled animator to do what you propose.

Not that its an unreasonable idea, but already we have a marching movement with the weapon on the shoulder (for on safe mode) that was animated by wilco, used by the cwmod. There is a custom aiming anim of the musket by wilco, and new pistol anims by little ol' me, (and injury anims)

Be very wary on the sources you read for infantry tactics at this time, for these are hardly relevant for the kinds of encounters that are common in the form depicted by ofp (or can be done so practically.)

For example, civil war battles involved thousands of combatants, (you would be lucky to get 640 units in ofp) not to mention just 1 thousand.

Hence given that fighting in close order meant that musket volleys stood better chances of hitting targets (and inevitably made them easier targerts hrmph) it would just not be the same style of fighting as fought perhaps by a company. (At least in the same manner)

With that in mind, animations akin to guerilla, or small action encounters are far more suited already, than 'formal' or even 'romantic' perceptions of mass combat... as in the style of napoleonic warfare. (which lest past the first year of the civil war was rendered by extinct.)

[JdB 151]

Yes, the HDV campaign will be more focused on skirmishers (if we even include a battle at all), and less on the pitched battles. I'd rather go for the smaller engagements like in the West personally (also since we are going to do the Wild West later on it makes more sense). 3000 soldiers in one screen just isn't healthy for your GPU, even with 2000 of them being in lower lods...

[Connors 0]

what about using 2d sprites to recreate the numbers, there is thread on the somme forums that explains that (see if its possible)

The thread

[gavinthecat 0]

I too have long but (discretely) considered that possibility also, but not as a main avenue for this mod, I have thought of including a generic so called 'mass battle' unit, and i still intend to do this.

There is no details yet about it, but basically its a special unit or set of units, for use in larger scale battles, that graphically look inferior to a normal unit.

I think its important not to be diverted too much by this however, for ofp cannot really recreate a strategic game, its ai and such like while advanced for tactical combat, is in no way comparable to even and old tile based strategy game for lol the 486.

Which is different actually to the shinkansen plan to make it a vehicle, but then (id just give a mass battle unit more hitpoints if it had a few)

To be honest tho, its not our highest priority, but SHALL be included and tested in the first public release (our different version) but really this mod is about el mano mano fighting, than attempting to simulate the epic scale of a tabletop strategy game.

I have been making units for their ww1 mod too, specially designed to use performance enhancing features, so they can be used en masse, but not obviously on the scale cited.

[Connors 0]

Take a look at this (its been translated with babel fish)

With the Soldiers Addon it is now possible to provide three times so many opponents as before. Instead of that maximally 756 opponents in 63 groups are possible thereby 2268 (! opponents in 189 groups. And so geht's: If one wants to play as a west soldier, then one adjusts the Resistance to the side "East" and selects themselves in the list of the Resistance and Civilian unit the new (and/or completely normal old) Russian soldiers. They are located completely above in the list, in order to bring not too much disorder into these. In addition it is now possible to use civilians who can belong to all sides. Surely an interesting possibility, if one wants to explain sowas like a civil war. The Addon "Soldiers.pbo" must be packed in the Addon file

Here's the download link

Soldiers addon

[gavinthecat 0]

Sooo... go and run that past me again Conner? it basically triples the group limit or?

[ESFD 0]

It's not really important to portray every unit in the battle at the same time but to simulate the section of line the player is fighting in (respawn scripts, low visibility, ambient sound).

Good examples are different WWII FPS games simulating the Normandy invasion and Rome, where there isn't 50000 units present in th battle but the battle still looks grand.

About the campaign question, I support the "one character idea" and since big battles are difficult in OFP make the character a Quantril guerilla (not sure about the spelling) member. The campaign could be something similar to the Resistance campaign (with ammo and weapon collecting). In the first mission the player has to defend his home (and maybe family to make it more dramatic) against looting soldiers, fails and goes for revenge gathering his squad along the story (who can be later used as unique characters in another "after the war, wild west campaign").

[EnFuego 0]

The fun and mystic part of the Wild West was the fact that it was imprompt,,, ya never know what was going to happen next.

Get drunk and shoot someones cow for fun,,, happened.

Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp along with others FAKED a  baby beauty contest and all the church women all put up their fine looking babys for the contest held In DODGE CITY.

Well they rigged the contest and made sure a huge black baby won the money. The very large Black woman excepted the prize money and pissed the church people off,  Wyatt Earp and Bat Matserson were like everyone else,,,,,,,,

                                        funny and unpredictable like your MOD will be.

don't worry about being "cartoony",,,, thats what we want..

Ben Thompson was another badass who wore a badge and you could tell if he had been drinking that night by the row of street lanterns shot out by him when he walks home at night drunk.

           Ben Thompson was a texan  but was born in ENGLAND  so lads,,,your country is as a part of the wild west as USA,,, don't ever forget it,, along with the rest of the Islands and Europe.

  Peeing on someones horse saddle after drinking ment a gunfight....

[Connors 0]

i skimmed it, and i admit its rarther hard to understand (but it was translated from german), but i think thats what it does, and numbers arn't important i agree.

[William115 0]

a river steam boat:

~2800 pts (i'll try to remove some points)

~2300 polys

the textures was made with paint, not final

geometry lod and firegeometry lod was made too

[gavinthecat 0]

Haha! Congratulations mate thats coming along brilliantly, let me know when all the lods are done, and i'll get texturing that right away.

Congrats again tho its a cool looking model

[Connors 0]

*imagines pitting it against a scud

* :

[gavinthecat 0]

Alright lads, now here is a magical and beautiful moment.

(okay can i build up the hype anymore.)

I want you to stop and consider just how difficult this is...

To model and texture (to do both) of a horse! from scratch...

Well Zalmoxis has had a go and i think he has done a fabulous job, and the polys are kept well decently low for such a nice looking beastie.

I shall erect a picture, soon you will see pics of it with saddles, and anims in ofp.

[GoOB 0]

Looks very nice, fits very well with the looks of the unit models you have ingame so far. Good job

[gavinthecat 0]

I should post cos i forgot to add, that we did ask picket for his horse from cwmod, and he did say YES which was very kind of him, but by this time zal had modelled a new one anyway.

However, as an act of brotherly love lol we will share our finished horse, with cwmod and napoleon mod too.

[EnFuego 0]

is it easy to change the color??

Having a herd of all brown horses,,well ,, would look like a herd of brown horses... Maybe Black and White??

Gray,,

[Marcus4 0]

as alwas, very nice gents!

horse looks awsome, will u make a gunner postion so somone can shoot of the back?

[gavinthecat 0]

Hey lad thanx for the support and definately i love this horse too haha Righto, as regards to texture varieties, just bear in mind, that in theory u can have everything but its all at a cost, to cpu.

Truth is tho, any horse texture variant won't be more than 1 unit type, in terms of textures, so perhaps 3 will be good enough.

One brown, one creamy white, and the other er... patchy coloured.

Yep there will be a gunner view with an optic. (and there will be work done on scripts and anims for this horse) to try and make it uber fancy